Normal wear ?

Did you buy it in the late 70’s, so that you know it only has a hundred rounds?
You don’t happen to have, a now middle aged, son who’s been slipping out of the house with it the last 45 years?

Looks like someone's been taking a wood rasp too it.

THAT'S a Colt? It might be the roughest Colt I have ever seen. Wow. The WW ll guns were finished better than that.

That is pretty rough, but a lot of the guns from that time period came out with pretty rough internal parts straight from the factory. If it runs well then I would not sweat it, otherwise pretty easy to change out.

That's what the parts on a typical Series 70 or 80 Colt of that era usually looked like. I see nothing unusual in those pics.

"if it runs well I would not sweat it" Words to live by kids......

There's no way that amount of barrel tube wear happened in only 150 rounds. If it wasn't like it before then I suspect somebody cold blued it to hide the finish wear, and it quickly rubbed off.

I've owned many Colts over the years, and the only ones that ever showed that much finish wear on the barrel had several thousand rounds through them.

I simply don't know.
It has a tight Collet bushing though.

. I did a lot of racking also. The color simply went off. I don't know but I am sure it wasn't this white when I bought it few weeks ago.


Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

Anyway, a lot of shooters call the late 1970s through early 1990s to be Colt's "Dark Ages" because that's when their quality took a noticeable nosedive. Not saying they were all bad... I have a 1989 Government Model that's been my most heavily-used 1911. But there were a lot of bad guns made during that era due to labor problems, old machinery and worn tooling that wasn't being replaced. That's largely why your barrel has so many rough tooling marks on it. But as long as it's reliable and accurate the cosmetics are really of little consequence.

Masnart said:

I simply don't know.
It has a tight Collet bushing though.

. I did a lot of racking also. The color simply went off. I don't know but I am sure it wasn't this white when I bought it few weeks ago.


Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

The racking could have worn the barrel finish just like firing, especially if the lugs of the barrel, and slides internal finish were a little rough from the beginning. With a pistol that old, its still hard for even a seasoned dealer to know the exact history—its simply an educated guess.
What does stand out in your photos is the rounded worn appearance of the chamber mouth. A new pistol has a distinct sharp look to the chamfer, while a used gun shows rounded edges. There also appears to be a wear pattern visible in the chamber that would only be from rounds being cycled through it—it looks like its been shot some, are you sure you don’t have an older son that’s been slipping it out of the house?

I did cycle it with rounds going in and out a lot (Cannot afford hundreds of .45 ACP here - 85$ a box of 50 winchester standard box)

And I mean A LOT, when adjusting the tension if the Extractor.

I know that late 70s to late 80s American cars aren't that Cool .. guess the same for colt ?

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

That’s amazing and wonderful they Lebanon allows it’s Citizens to own firearms. I like it.

Masnart said:

I did cycle it with rounds going in and out a lot (Cannot afford hundreds of .45 ACP here - 85$ a box of 50 winchester standard box)

And I mean A LOT, when adjusting the tension if the Extractor.

I know that late 70s to late 80s American cars aren't that Cool .. guess the same for colt ?

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

The pistol itself looks beautiful from the photos regardless when it was made!

Masnart said:

I did cycle it with rounds going in and out a lot (Cannot afford hundreds of .45 ACP here - 85$ a box of 50 winchester standard box)

And I mean A LOT, when adjusting the tension if the Extractor.

I know that late 70s to late 80s American cars aren't that Cool .. guess the same for colt ?

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

That wouldn't do what I'm seeing - everything about that barrel is just rough except the bore which looks good. I had a 1918 Colt M1911 that was re-issued to a certain young Lieutenant in WWII and who kept it the rest of his life. When I got it, the recoil and firing pin springs were totally shot out and when I took it apart, I swear it had never been detail-stripped - it had gobs of fuzzy black build-up inside. My point is, nothing inside the gun had wear on it like you are showing. It looks like that barrel was sent through a rock crusher a few times.
Otherwise, it looks good. Somebody put a Commander-style hammer in it.

I think dsk nailed it in post #12, if it’s reliable & shoots well, ENJOY!

1saxman said:

Somebody put a Commander-style hammer in it.

Click to expand...

I noticed that and wonder what other stuff was done to it before you got it. It is obviously not exactly as it came from the factory because of that hammer.